Museum

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The Dallas Museum of Art is a space of wonder and discovery where art comes alive. 

— DMA Mission Statement

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) acts as a catalyst for community creativity, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse spectrum of programming, from exhibitions and lectures to concerts, literary events and dramatic performances. At the heart of the DMA and its programs is a global collection of 26,500 artworks from all cultures and time periods, spanning 5,000 years of human creativity.

The Museum prioritizes accessibility to ideas and makes a concerted effort to represent a breadth of cultures, races, religions, demographics, sexes, sexual orientations, time periods, and mediums — promoting the power and necessity of seeing one’s self reflected in the art on display.

Through this transformative project, the DMA aims to reinvigorate its curatorial journey, telling a more complete and inclusive story and establishing a distinctive DMA canon’. There is a dual aspect to this approach: to ensure that all of the Museum’s global icons are on permanent display; and to move away from chronological, categorized curation, exploring intersectionality, juxtaposition and the promotion of critical thinking and understanding — showcasing underrepresented artists and shedding light on unexplored narratives.

Significantly, the Museum has been promised three visionary philanthropic gifts. In 2005, Dallas patrons Marguerite and Robert Hoffman, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky, and Deedie and Rusty Rose each promised their expansive Post War and Contemporary Art Collections. These are expected to add thousands of additional works of art and potentially make the contemporary holdings of the DMA the most significant contemporary collection in an encyclopedic museum.

Strategic Themes

  • Bring life into the building: give the DMA vibrancy, reimagine it as welcoming and accessible to all, and engaged with all of Dallas’ diverse communities. 
  • Enhance the DMA’s Downtown campus: increase its visibility and give it transparency to show Dallas citizens what’s happening inside.
  • Present the DMA’s iconic artworks in exemplary flexible spaces that enable dynamic programming.
  • Refresh the Museum’s connection with its immediate urban landscape.
  • Revitalize the DMA as the premier visitor destination in the Dallas Arts District with new event spaces and appealing food service offerings.
  • Attract visitors to Dallas to boost the Arts and local economy and raise regional, national and international awareness of the DMA and the city of Dallas.
  • Communicate the DMA’s core values — art at the center, equity and community at the core — and reaffirm the Museum as a cultural anchor for Dallas, the City’s founding cultural organization, in the run-up to the DMA’s 125 anniversary in 2028.